Eighth graders in SoBu tackle big energy

Electromagnetism is a game, among other things, in this South Burlington classroom

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How does wind measure up? Tuttle Middle School eighth-graders aim to find out. From right: Emily Coolidge, Michael Grant and Taylor Metcalf, during a lab class presented by Vermont Energy Education Program in late September at the South Burlington school.(Photo: JOEL BANNER BAIRD/FREE PRESS)Buy Photo

Keagy had arrived earlier, having lugged her cargo up to the roomy, second-floor classroom and set up five work stations,

The Morristown resident had plenty of pep left over. Pep, and being “super-organized” keeps her a precious few steps ahead of surging student enthusiasm, Keagy said.

While the students were still desk-bound, she and Lutz summarized the puzzles posed by each cluster of hardware.

Any questions? There were none, and then the real inquiries began, carousel-like, around the lab room.

Station One: Is there a wrong way to wire a wind turbine to a volt-meter? (Yes). Is there more than one way to catch a more-productive breeze from a table fan? (Yes, again).

Station Two: How do magnets work? (Who knows? But they do, and they induce certain other objects to shift uneasily).

Station Three: What makes a “shake-and-shine” flashlight work? (Isaac Toupin, 13, dismantled one and found a magnet. Also a coil of copper wire).

Station Four: Sure enough, the hand-crank generators can easily power a small motor, a small fan, even a radio. But what happens when you connect two generators together? (To disclose this would spoil the surprise. Ask Toupin and his teammates, Taylor Metcalf, Mitchell Grant, Emily Coolidge, Alexander Haag and Charlotte McCabe).

Station Five: To what extent are a bicyclist’s leg muscles and lungs indicators of a light bulb’s efficiency (Pretty good, when the stationary bike is connected to a generator).

In other words, energy is work.

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Mariah Keagy, an instructor with nonprofit Vermont Energy Education Program, explores the similarities between electric motors and generators with eighth-graders Michael Grant (left) and Taylor Metcalf at Tuttle Middle School in South Burlington.
Keagy set up a one-day lab in the class of science teacher Amelia Lutz in late September.(Photo: JOEL BANNER BAIRD/FREE PRESS)

The students seated themselves and jotted down what they’d seen, felt and heard; what, if any, patterns emerged.

Keagy interrupted, holding aloft spool of red wire to which was attached an old-fashioned, analog meter. Through it she passed a bar magnet.

The needle on the meter shifted.

Keagy had just introduced the Faraday coil, invented by Englishman Michael Faraday in the 1830s.

Few folks back then paid much attention to the novelty, Keagy said – because it seemed to have no practical application. The ho-hum of it all changed a half-century later, when Edison developed the light bulb.

“So -- there could be something useful that someone has invented now, but we don’t know about it yet?” Diego Gonzalez, 13, asked?

His classmates cast their eyes around the room.

The prospect of new ways of understanding, managing, storing and saving energy, drives home the point of teaching science, Lutz said, “Otherwise, it just becomes a lot of stuff to remember.”

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Wiring up a wind turbine at Tuttle Middle School in South Burlington: From left, eighth-graders Alexander Haag, Isaac Toupin and Charlotte McCabe. The experiment was part of a lab presented by nonprofit Vermont Energy Education Program, hosted by science teacher Amelia Lutz.(Photo: JOEL BANNER BAIRD/FREE PRESS)

Her curriculum includes identifying energy-related needs in the classroom, the school and in the greater community.

Not only does that practically minded approach anticipate new guidelines for science education, Lutz said; it has become part-and-parcel of South Burlington’s citywide bid for the Georgetown University Energy Prize, a two-year campaign with a $5 million purse.

In the coming months, adults in the region can expect more messages about insulation, LED lighting and solar panels.

The schools’ role, Lutz said, “is that if the messages are coming from their kids, it’s harder for parents to say ‘no.’”

Lunchtime loomed.

Keagy moved quickly through a summary of power generation, and with students, outlined the challenges posed by each fuel source.

The session had felt like a whirlwind tour.

“There’s so much unpacking of concepts left to do,” she said afterward. “Hopefully, when I leave here, I leave a lot of questions.”

Diego Gonzalez, an eighth-grader at Tuttle Middle School in South Burlington, shoots up his hand during a Q&A session moderated by Vermont Energy Education Program instructor Mariah Keagy. The one-day lab, hosted by Amelia Lutz' science class, was held in late September.(Photo: JOEL BANNER BAIRD/FREE PRESS)